More than 2,000 people have already been relocated from Taiwan’s outlying islands, popular with tourists, and troops were preparing to help more residents move from their homes into shelters.
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As of 5:30pm yesterday, Soudelor was centered 790km east-southeast of Hualien, moving west-northwesterly and packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph, with gusts reaching 198kph. Restoration of power and communication may reportedly take several months as some roads have to be cleared of debris.
Taiwan issued a land warning and cautioned against landslides and flooding as Typhoon Soudelor barrels westward toward the island and eastern China.
The President yesterday declared a major disaster exists in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and ordered federal aid to supplement commonwealth and local recovery efforts in the area affected by Typhoon Soudelor during the period of August 1-3, 2015. Although there is considerable uncertainty about the storm’s intensity on Friday morning ET, or Friday evening local time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is forecasting that the storm may come ashore with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, or 115 knots.
It had winds of 173km/h close to its centre, the Central Weather Bureau said, making it the strongest storm to threaten the island since 2013’s Typhoon Usagi.
Wind and rain whipped trees in the capital, Taipei, and media showed waves along the coast as high as 5m.
Typhoon Maysak slammed into the Federated States of Micronesia in late March killing at least four people and leaving more than 5,000 in need of food, shelter and other emergency assistance. Residents of Saipan are still without water and electricity and are rationing fuel.
That there were no reports of deaths or serious injury “seems nearly impossible”, Hunter said. “The chance of the typhoon strengthening later is still expected”.
Governments of provinces including Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong as well as Shanghai Municipality should closely track the typhoon and make timely public announcements, the ministry said in statement on Thursday.
Experts say the storm that was once classified super typhoon may lose steam as it approaches these countries.
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“I am in contact with senior officials at the White House”, Sablan said.
